Thursday, May 29, 2008

A New Flower Canvas

I've decided to start another flower canvas, this time using a photo of pansy faces that I took in my garden.


I've been wanting to try this technique (I'm going to call it a "shadow" technique, because I don't how else to describe it) on a canvas for some time. And now that I have a small canvas to experiment on, I'm eager to give it a try.

You need to have a fairly big area to fill - and the pansy petals should work just fine - and then you pick out a smallish pattern that fits the area you're stitching. I chose a oval repeat pattern, sort of a diaper pattern really, to echo the organic petal shapes. I think using an upright, straight stitch works best, because you WANT the canvas to show thru. If you use a diagonal stitch, the thread will cover the canvas more completely and not much of the canvas will show. And in this case, you want the colors on the canvas to show thru.


I'm using just one strand of DMC Floche (my current favorite thread) for all the stitching thus far (you can also use 1-2 ply of floss or silk).... You can see that even though I'm using just one yellow color, it LOOKS like I've shaded the colors on the canvas. I'll continue stitching over the black stripes too. (I plan to tent stitch the white and orange center areas, then put straight stitches - or narrow bullions - on top for the stripes. That's my plan, anyway.)

And I've done the same treatment on the blue petal. It's harder to see because of the darker color, but I'm using a royal blue thread (in a slightly smaller version of the stitch pattern) to cover the whole blue petal, yet the shaded canvas is showing thru, so it seems like you've changed thread colors.

In the background, I've started stitching rows of basketweave stitches, but leaving two canvas rows blank in-between. I'm hoping it will look lacy but fuzzy, if you know what I mean. And I think I'll do any distinct leaf areas in a full basketweave, to stand out from the sketchier background stitching...

As for the borders, I might do the same padded borders as I did on the Gerber Daisy, but I'm not sure what I'll put in the middle row. Checkers? Stripes? or just a shaded band? I'll just have to see what looks best when I get to it!

6 comments:

  1. This is going to be a great piece! Could you share the approximate size of the design area? And I'd love to know the technique for transferring the photo to canvas. Thanks.

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  2. Very pretty! Try using a metallic thread for your bullions. That gleam makes lovely bullions!

    As for the center of the border, how about tiny lady bugs? Or four leaf clovers to echo the rounded petals of the little pansies?

    Jane, full of silly ideas today here in Chilly Hollow

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  3. I really love this canvas, design and colors. What you are planning to do seems quite interesting and what we can see so far looks very good.

    I am curious as to its size. Can't wait to see this one completely stitched. Looks like a winner to me :-)

    Pierrette =^..^=

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  4. Hi, Laura! These new florals that you're working on are simply gorgeous. Can you tell me how you got the image onto the canvas? Did you paint free-hand from the photograph, or is there another technique that you used? I'm working my way through your charts and have completed almost twenty of them, but these new pieces really caught my eye! I can hardly wait to see what's next!

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  5. Anon - exactly my question! I'm really interested in this as I have some ideas and pictures of my own I might be interested in pursuing

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  6. Hi Laura,

    I'm also enjoying seeing you develop these "real" flower canvases.

    Looking forward to seeing how you stitch this flower canvas! :-)

    Cynthia
    Windy Meadow

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